


Help! I Need Somebody

by Anonymous6285



Category: The Beatles (Band)
Genre: Bicycles, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 06:07:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29413866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anonymous6285/pseuds/Anonymous6285
Summary: Riding bikes on set for a movie didn’t seem like too much of a problem for somebody who actually learned how to as a kid.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Help! I Need Somebody

George stepped into the hotel room, immediately met with Ringo pacing back and forth, muttering things under his breath. At first, he just laughed a bit, manoeuvering around the drummer to get to his bed and lay down, but then he caught a glimpse of Ringo’s face. Tears were streaming down the redness of his cheeks as if he’d been crying for a bit. And yet he was still pacing.

“Rich, you alright?” he asked, wondering if he would even get an answer. Surprisingly, he did.

“No, I’m not fucking alright. What does it look like?” He stopped moving around and sat down next to George, taking him by surprise.

“So what’s wrong, then? You seem pretty upset about it, whatever it is.” The situation no longer seemed as funny.

“We’re supposed to ride bikes tomorrow, Geo…” 

He stared at Ringo for quite a bit. Of course they were. They’d known that for a while, and he didn’t see what that had to do with anything. Until he remembered that time when they were in America, and Brian rented them bikes to ride around on. 

Ringo had politely rejected the idea every time somebody brought it up to him and eventually was able to get out of it, walking around with George instead. And he also remembered what the older man had confessed to him that day, something he hadn’t told the others.

He said his leg hurt, that was the reason he didn’t want to ride around on a bicycle, but what he told George was that he couldn’t. That he’d grown up in and out of hospitals, and there was never any time to learn how to ride a bike. Then, it dawned on him that there was no getting out of riding one tomorrow. 

“Oh…”

“Yeah! Oh! Fuck!” He buried his head in his palms and groaned. “What am I gonna do, Geo? I’m gonna fall over, gonna hurt myself! And there’s no way I’m telling the others I don’t know how, either!” 

George started to think. He started to really think about what they could do. Maybe if there was a way he could teach Ringo without the others knowing, before they had to film… “I have an idea!” he shouted. “What time is it?”

“I don’t know, but what’s your idea?”

“Okay, before you say no, hear me out.”

-

Ringo fiddled with his hands as they waited for the door to open, not knowing how this was going to go over. But even so, the door did open, and Brian sat there with a blank expression, surprised to see them both.

“Can I help you?”

George peeked around him into the room to make sure John and Paul weren’t in there at all. “Do you know if there’s somewhere Rich and I can go ride bikes?”

For a minute, he glanced between them, completely lost. “Like now?”

“Yeah…” Ringo shifted around uncomfortably as the two of them had their strange conversation.

“Why?”

He knew this was it, too. Brian wasn’t just going to let them go without knowing why. “Well, he… he never learnt how, and he doesn’t want John and Paul to laugh at him for it. So we just thought that maybe if I was able to teach him tonight before we had to film, it might be easier that way.” 

It seemed like forever until he finally answered, and the entire time, Ringo continued to get more and more nervous. 

“I suppose you could go out to the car park under the hotel if you wanted. I think there’s just one bike I can get you, though, so I’m not sure how exactly you’re going to teach him…”

“We’ll find a way,” George promised.

“Alright. Let’s go get you a bike, then.” They both followed him down the hallway towards the lift, and the butterflies in Ringo’s stomach were starting to settle. Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad at all.

-

The two of them did end up in the car park, and despite just having the one bike, they were managing just fine. Currently, Ringo was shakily staying up on it with the help of George at his side. When he started to get going a bit faster, George let go, and immediately after, the drummer crashed to the ground.

“Richie!” George shouted, scared his friend had gotten hurt. He ran to help him up, but when he saw his face, a huge smile was present.

“I fucking suck at this, George! How am I going to learn this before tomorrow? And I’m tired, too! I need sleep!” 

“We’ve got this, love. Let’s try again, okay?” Ringo rolled his eyes and got back onto the bike. “Okay, start pedalling, and I’ll hold onto the back of the bike for you.” 

“Okay…” After getting up a bit of speed, Ringo was starting to get a hold of it, and he turned the next corner, the first one he’d gotten through without falling. “George! Did you see that?! I made that corner!”

“That’s great!” George shouted from… behind him? Far behind him? But wasn’t he…?

Ringo spun his body around to see where George had gone and found that he was riding it all by himself. “Oh, my god! I’m doing it! Geo! I’m--!”

“Rich! Watch out!” 

The bicycle beneath him jolted, flinging him off to the side, and his arm slammed right into the ground, and not two seconds later, a horn filled his ears, coming on and off repeatedly. His throat closed up, hands beginning to shake.

“George?” he grunted, opening his eyes to see George rushing towards him.

“Fuck! Are you okay??” He shrugged, suddenly realising where the horn was coming from. The car next to him, now going crazy, had a bike handlebar dug into its hood, and he jumped up. 

“Oh, god… I’m so sorry! What are we going to do? I didn’t mean to--”

“Let’s just go get Brian, okay?” Ringo pulled the bike away from the car and tried to close the hood back down to see if it would help. It didn’t.

“He’s going to be mad, isn’t he?”

“Probably, but he’s going to find out either way, so we might as well get it over with, yeah?” Ringo sighed. “Well, is the car dented at all?” He leaned down to inspect it only to find that he couldn’t even find any mark while trying.

“I think it just crashed into the handle of the hood and opened it.”

“Oh. So… there’s no way you could know.” Then, the drummer grinned. “Let’s just get back up to the hotel. You think you’ll be okay tomorrow?”

“No. But better than I would’ve been.” He picked the bicycle up off of the ground. 

“Well, that’s the goal, innit?” 

“Thanks,” he muttered happily, and George just giggled.

“My pleasure.”


End file.
